Ambition Must be Made to Counter Ambition

Federalist #51 (Madison):

“If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”

“Ambition Must be Made to Counter Ambition“

It is the nature and just purpose of government to coerce compliance. We want an need governments to establish an enforce a Monopoly of Violence. How much violence do we need applied to ourselves and how do we restrain the gradual usurpation of power is the subject of this paper.

Federalist #9 and #10 the